. >> warner: jeffrey white, a defense fellow at the washington institute for near east policy, says the syrian government is waging a deliberate scorched- earth strategy. >> it's trying to get at f.s.a. units that are embedded inside the population. where the people are, the f.s.a. tends to be. but it is also to punish the people, the civilians, for supporting the f.s.a. the relationship between the f.s.a. units and the people is critical to the success of the rebellion. >> warner: why don't the regime forces just go in these areas and take them and hold them? >> it basically can't do that any longer. six months ago, they could go anywhere in the country, effectively, where they wanted with armor and mechanized forces simply push the f.s.a. out of the area and reestablish a presence. the opposition is strong enough now that for the regime's ground forces to go into those areas is a punishing affair for the regime. >> warner: throughout this conflict, syrian president bashar al-assad has blamed the high civilian deaths on the rebels themselves, foreign agents and military accidents. >> (